When I first traveled to the Middle East to do shows in 2007 with two other comedians as part of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, the promoters would warn us everywhere we went, “No sex, no religion and no politics.” Well, as you can imagine, that pretty much took away all our jokes except maybe any we’d written about our pet turtles—and even those could have been construed as sexual.

It left me wondering why comedy was seen as such a threat in these countries.

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Then I had to reflect on the United States, where I grew up and have spent most of my life. Let’s not forget that only 50 to 60 years ago, Lenny Bruce was getting arrested for things he was saying at comedy clubs around the country. After him, it was comedians like George Carlin, Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory who were pushing the envelope of free speech in the United States and often being shut down for it.

The attacks in France have put satire in the Muslim world front and center. I am a standup comedian who has performed comedy in the Middle East in front of thousands of Muslims. And believe it or not, they laughed at plenty, especially when we poked fun at local culture. The Lebanese loved it when you would make fun of their driving and how in Lebanon a red light is just a suggestion to stop. In Dubai, they laughed when you would point out their obsession with doing everything big: the biggest building in the world, the biggest mall, the biggest fireworks show ever—so big that neighboring Bahrain thought it was under attack. The Jordanians laughed when I told them I found out our comedy DVD had a Jordanian distribution deal—which is when one Jordanian buys it and everyone else sees it. Also known as a bootleg.

Don’t believe me? I have proof. If you want to actually see Muslims laughing you can watch the TED talk I did in Doha a few years back. There are shots of Muslims in traditional Muslim garb laughing. Here is the clip.

Religion, however, is a delicate subject. I would say that while most Muslims take offense at the portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons, they would never resort to violence. It is a minority of extremist Muslims who take such actions, and they do it for political and tactical reasons far beyond just being offended.

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But let’s not forget that people in Western and other countries have their sensitivities too. I myself experienced some run-ins with censorship of my comedy as recently as 10 years ago.

I once did a standup show called Premium Blend on Comedy Central. At the time I would end my act with a joke that made references to Mercedes-Benz, 7-Eleven and Slurpee. When I submitted my act for approval, the show’s producers came back and said that I couldn’t mention those three brands because they might have been sponsors on the show. I quickly came to realize that in the Middle East, god is god, and in the West, the sponsor is god — or, as I like to say, Tide detergent is god.

Later, during the Iraq War, I was on stage a few times at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles and I did some jokes about President Bush. One time there was a young girl sitting in the front and she yelled, “You can’t make fun of our commander in chief at a time of war!” She was truly offended by my making a joke about the president and wanted me to stop. I ran into this a few times during the war where people actually got angry with me and chose to leave the club. I had to remind them that one of the pretenses of starting the war with Iraq was that we were bringing democracy to Iraq. I tried to point out the hypocrisy of saying that we were bringing democracy and with it, free speech to Iraq and yet in the United States these people were telling me to limit my free speech because they didn’t agree with my politics. I pointed out that that was the beauty of the United States and the West. We can actually make fun of our leaders and not get in trouble. I couldn’t make fun of the president of Iran in Iran. If I made fun of the president of Iran in Iran you would come up to me after the show and ask, “When’s the next show?” I would have to reply, “There are no more shows. The ministry of ‘no shows’ showed up tonight and my next show will be a farewell performance in prison.”